Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016

• Autumn Rain
• Dusk
• Where's Woodhouse
• Blackbird Business
• Litter Balls
• Pension Fix
• Grant Addicts
• Election Forum
• No AF
• Police Reports
• Dope Yups
• Yesterday's Catch
• Glass-Steagall
• Fetch
• Tabloid Trash
• Giants Fan
• Cactus Eaters
• Waiting
• Endgame
• Correction
• Business
• Library Events
• Dem Investigation
• Hitler
• Museum Event
• Voter Reg
• Ecodefense

UP TO A QUARTER OF AN INCH of rain fell on Anderson Valley Monday, although amounts varied from area to area (“microclimate” to “microclimate” to meteorophiles). Temps stayed mostly in the 50s during the overcast, cloudy daytime. No more rain is expected for the next week as temps rise back up to seasonal 70s and maybe an 80 or two next weekend. There’s a slight chance of more showers in the middle of next week. It’s not likely that today’s drizzle will bring an end to the official fire season, but one more like this ought to do it.

WHERE’S WOODHOUSE? The Third District Supervisor missed a Board of Supervisors meeting on September 13th. There were vague references to a personal or family situation that caused his absence. Woodhouse then missed the joint meeting with the Fort Bragg City Council in Fort Bragg on September 19. And he missed his third meeting in a row on September 20. Sheriff Allman addressed the Supervisors on September 20 under public expression on behalf of Carlin Woodhouse, the supervisor's wife. Sheriff Allman said he fully expected the Supervisor to be back in action as soon as possible.

THE BOARD is scheduled to meet today, Tuesday, October 4. If Woodhouse is a no show it will be the fourth meeting in a row he’s missed. As the AVA goes to press there is increasing concern about the health of the supervisor and speculation about what is going on. Except for Allman's brief comment on September 20, there has been no public statement from Supervisor Woodhouse, his family, or the County. But stories are beginning to circulate that the Supervisor is experiencing some sort of mental breakdown that is keeping him from his duties. When and if the Supervisor resurfaces, and especially if he does not reappear, someone needs to tell the public what's going on. In the meantime, it appears that the Third District is without representation.

IF WOODHOUSE can’t continue, either the Supes or, heaven forbid, the Governor, would appoint a successor. Which would have to be Willits councilman (and fellow Democrat) Holly Madrigal since Woodhouse narrowly eked out a victory over Ms. M when they opposed each other for the North County seat. We’d like to see Johnny Pinches un-retire to finish out Woodhouse’s term if it comes to it, and it appears it will at some point soon, but Pinches would only be considered if Ms. M declined appointment.

THE BLACKBIRD-TRUMP CONNECTION

Editor,

The Terry Gross interview with David Fahrenthold last week that revealed Donald Trump's commingling of nonprofit with for-profit enterprise elicited a guffaw from me as I realized the pattern connection with Philo's own Pathways in Education/Blackbird Farm family, John Hall, Joan Hall and Jamie Hall Donahue of Pasadena. Shysters all.

John Hall has close to 40 businesses both for profit and nonprofit. Joan about 25 and Jamie about 15. An "Extraordinary Audit" dated Aug. 9, 2006 exposes John and Joan Hall as paying themselves over $320,000 a year each to run only one of their nonprofits while they earned an undisclosed income from a for-profit business that supplied "goods and services" to the nonprofit.

At Blackbird Farm, owned and operated by Pathways in Education Inc. a nonprofit, we have a similar commingling trying to be initiated and I honestly don't know how the law can allow them to do it. Currently they are operating an 11 day rotation of young students from the city during the school year. Their self-promotion is slick, glossy and colorful. They get paid well by the State to do this.

But almost immediately upon purchasing the Highland Ranch from George Gaines they applied for a Major Use Permit from the County in 2013 to increase maximum capacity for guests and employees from 36 to 292. We local residents didn't hear anything about it until June of this year, one month before it was to go before the Planning Commission for final approval.

Thankfully our community was outraged, wrote letters in protest and showed up at the Planning Commission in numbers to argue against the project. We won a postponement until December 15.

Contrary to their self-promotion none of the expansion has anything to do with the student based nonprofit enterprise and everything to do with for-profit accommodation of "guests." How can that happen on land owned and operated by a nonprofit organization?

Now they seem to be worried and have been sending representatives around to wineries, tasting rooms and some neighbors handing out a letter asking for support and a full color glossy flyer that attempts to make it appear that the expansion is all about the students — which it clearly is not. The letter states that the reason they want to expand is they haven't "been able to recover expenses to date" but remember they applied for the expanded use permit even before they made any attempt to recover expenses. Such was part of their intent from the beginning. They have also been glad-handing and extending invitations to lunch. If this whole project is not illegal, it is deceptive, immoral and unethical.

Please stand with your friends and neighbors in opposition to this unhealthy and unscrupulous exploitation of our Valley.

Now that I think about it, John Hall actually looks somewhat like Donald Trump. I wonder if gross amounts of deviously achieved money by a predecessor 70 years ago could have had access to a secret experimental clone doctor of the day?

David Severn

Philo

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A READER WRITES: On Sunday while walking in the Mendocino Botanical Gardens we observed this idiot on the property just north with a huge tub of white golf balls, driving one after another into the sea:

You might want to inform your readers that this activity is a violation of Penal Code 374.4 - Littering - and is subject to a $250 to $1,000 fine (first offense) and a mandatory eight hours of picking up litter.

Golf balls were original made of cowhide stuffed with goose and duck feathers and painted white - relatively innocuous. Then they were stuffed with highly compressed wound rubber and a solid core, then solid rubber insides with a low-spin "surlyn" cover. Nowadays, golf balls are made with a variety of materials including resin polymers and thermoplastic urethane covers. According to the Danish Golf Association, they are "humanity's signature litter." Each year 300 million golf balls are lost or discarded in the United States alone. And estimated 100,000 balls lie on the bottom of Loch Ness in Scotland, the birthplace of golf, and golf balls are on the moon after astronaut Alan Shepard whacked-off a couple during the Apollo 14 lunar mission in 1971. A toxic golf ball was even discovered in the belly of a whale:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SPORT/11/04/littering.golf.balls/

Golf balls take from 100 to 1,000 years to decompose. According to the DGA report "during decomposition, the golf balls dissolved to release a high quantity of heavy metals. Dangerous levels of zinc were found in the synthetic rubber filling used in solid core golf balls. When submerged in water, the zinc attached itself to the ground sediment and poisoned the surrounding flora and fauna." http://tinyurl.com/jkp8m7m

The good news is that responsible golfers can now purchase "EcoBioBalls" that decompose in 48 hours, and leave behind nothing but the fish food they are stuffed with. But in California, you'll be talking to the Sheriff or a F&W warden until you can prove you are only feeding the fish.

If anyone can identify this person please contact the AVA so we can help him with his swing.

GENTLEMAN GEORGE HOLLISTER comments on the County’s pension fund controversy: “And, we might add, that even if you use Mr. Stephens’ more accurate lower rate of return for the stock market, you still have nothing more than a standard pension problem where the projected pension assets and revenue might someday go into net decline. The “unfunded liability” is basically a snapshot in time of the present deficit and is not an actual long-term liability. Many, many things could happen both within the system and without, and the problem, however large, is not high on our list of looming catastrophes. It is a serious problem, but it does not require drastic change, any more than Social Security does.
 From the County’s perspective, “everything can be solved with enough time and money.” A problem with over leveraged equity and security investing is time and money run out. That is why there are regulatory limits to the degree of under funding in private pension plans. And that fails at times as well. Over leveraging is followed by bankruptcy, or in the case of government, a bailout, or both.
 SS does not require a “drastic” change, just a five year increase in the retirement age, to age 70. Why not do the same with the county pension plan? This fits into Ted Stephens’ reduced benefits option.”





HOW MANY MORE GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS can we stand? asks James Marmon in a response to a Tommy Wayne Kramer column enumerating those we have here in Mendocino County: “TWK, you left out the Mendocino County Youth Project. I worked there twice, 93-95 and 98-99. They have all kinds of programs too, and they are in most of our schools in some capacity. They have non-stop grant writers as well. Mendocino County is drunk on federal and state funding, and can’t seem to put it down and look for other solutions.
 The poor and needy population provides hundreds of helping professionals with jobs so there will never be a solution to the problem because of that. If we ever did our jobs right we wouldn’t have any work which could lead to possibility of having to find real work, maybe at a sawmill. Oops, we don’t have any of those anymore, they moved to China and Mexico where they mill our logs, while the rest of our nation buys their lumber from Canada. 
—James Marmon. MSW”

VAL MUCHOWSKI and the Mendocino Women's Political Coalition, a front for the Democratic Party of Mendocino County, sponsored an election forum last Thursday at Ukiah City Hall. The evening opened with two Ukiah City Council members running unopposed. Ukiah businessman Doug Crane, a 12 year council veteran, and Steve Scalmanini who lucked into the position two years ago when no one else ran for the seat vacated by the resignation of Mari Rodin. Each will each get another term, which is a good thing in Crane’s case, not so good in Scalmanini’s, a scattered, wacky sort of guy who has not only led the charge against a CostCo for Ukiah, a stance that puts him at odds with most of the people of Mendocino County, but often veers off into areas of discussion that make sense only to him. Scalamini is one more example of the porousness of Mendocino County politics where people pop up out of nowhere, get elected or appointed to important local positions, then disappear, never to be heard from again.

SHERIFF ALLMAN strongly made the case for Measures AG and AH which would impose a temporary half-cent sales tax to raise funds to develop facilities for the treatment and diagnosis of mental illness and substance abuse. The only known opposition comes from Supervisor Dan Hamburg and Nancy Sutherland. The latter recently resigned as chair of the Behavioral Health and Advisory Board (previously known as the Mental Health Board). Sutherland has correctly argues that not one cent of the measures will be spent for services, but she ignores the primary benefits of having local facilities that will provide local services with the large sums of public money now spent on shipping the mentally ill to distant and very expensive (and largely ineffective) facilities far from Mendocino County.

SUPERVISOR DAN GJERDE spoke in support of Measure AI, the county Marijuana Tax, and Measure AJ, an advisory measure that says if AI passes, the voters want a majority of the funds spent for marijuana regulation and enforcement, mental health, road repairs, and fire and EMS. Measure AJ is non-binding, but if the Sheriff's mental health initiative passes, the marijuana tax could be a source of funds for staffing costs for the new facilities that will be developed. The only known opposition to AI comes from the vaguely populated Mendocino Medical Marijuana Patient's Union. Even the proponents of Measure AF (which includes a tax measure of it's own) are calling for a "YES" vote on Measures AI and AJ.

THE DEBATE ON MEASURE AF (also known as the Heritage Initiative) was the highlight of the evening with Sarah Bodnar (the paid campaign manager for AF) squaring off against Supervisor John McCowen. According to Erick O'Donnell, reporting for the Ukiah Daily Journal, Bodnar said "We can't make money for this county until this industry has rules they can follow.” Ms. Bodnar called marijuana "the most important economic engine for the future of this county." Bodnar said that Measure AF was needed to provide "regulatory certainty" and align Mendocino County with state law. Bodnar declared "until there are laws that every part of the industry can follow, from cultivation to processing, manufacturing, lab testing, distributing, and dispensing, we have prohibition."

McCOWEN BEGAN by reminding the audience that he has been directly involved with local marijuana regulations for the past twelve years, declaring "This isn't about regulating marijuana. It isn't about being pro- or anti-marijuana. It's about writing regulations that fairly balance the needs of medical patients, cultivators, the general community and the environment. On every score, Measure AF fails."

IN RESPONSE TO A QUESTION on the effect of repealing the county's current marijuana laws and replacing them with Measure AF, McCowen listed all the setbacks that would be reduced or eliminated, including any setback from a youth oriented facility, like a Boy's and Girl's Club. "By taking us back to when neighbors were in conflict because neighbors were inappropriately growing marijuana too close to their neighbors, they are not promoting public safety, they are doing the opposite," McCowen said.

BODNAR GAMELY COUNTERED that Measure AF is in alignment with state law and that there was no certainty the county would be able to get regulations quickly in place because the county ordinance could be challenged by a lawsuit, as happened earlier this year with the urgency ordinance. McCowen responded that because Measure AF was put on the ballot as an initiative, it would not be subject to environmental review and there would be no opportunity to identify significant impacts or mitigate them. McCowen drove the point home by noting that Ellen Drell and the Willits Environmental Center were opposed to Measure AF because of the threat to the environment. McCowen claimed AF would allow hundreds or even thousands of new marijuana cultivators on new cultivation sites.

McCOWEN ATTEMPTED to provide assurance that the county was moving forward with all the state license types and that the current draft cultivation ordinance was available for public review and would be going to the county Planning Commission on Nov. 3 and Nov. 17 before coming back to the Board of Supervisors late this year or early next year for adoption. McCowen said he expected the ordinance to change as it moved through the process, reminding listeners that Measure AF is an "all or nothing proposition" and we will be stuck with it if it passes.

THE DEBATE GREW TENSE in response to a question about campaign finance reporting by the Yes on AF committee. McCowen said the committee had not listed a $10,000 payment to a marijuana defense attorney who wrote the Heritage Initiative. "That's because he didn't accept it," said Bodnar. But given the largely underground marijuana economy, and the prevalence of cash transactions, who knows what payments are being made?

MOST OBSERVERS gave the edge to McCowen, who cited specific provisions of Measure AF to back up his claims that it did not protect public safety, the environment or small farmers. Citing the opinion of County Treasurer-Tax Collector Shari Schapmire, McCowen even claimed the tax in Measure AF was uncollectible because it lacks a mechanism for collection or enforcement. Bodnar, who has been involved with local food policy issues, came across as bright and articulate but often had no effective response to McCowen's pointed criticism of Measure AF.

ACCORDING TO McCOWEN, a growing list of community groups, including the Mendocino County Fire Chief's Association, Fire Safe Council, County Board of Education, Peregrine Audubon Society, California Native Plant Society, Mendocino County Farm Bureau, Ukiah Valley Trail Group, Deputy Sheriff's Association, and others, including, of course, the Board of Supervisors, are all recommending a "NO" vote on Measure AF.

FORMER MEMBER OF MAOIST COP KILLER CULT AND PRIMARY SUSPECT IN BARI BOMBING FIGHTS MENDO POT INITIATIVE

Editor,

Yes on AF Installs Illegal Sign, Fail to File Campaign Finance Statement

The Yes on AF campaign committed two misdemeanor crimes on September 29 in its effort to pass a special interest measure written by a group of marijuana growers and dispensary operators.

1. Violates state law on size of political signs

Ignoring the state law that limits the size of political signs, the Yes on AF campaign installed a huge 4 foot by 16 foot sign at the intersection of Highways 1 and 20 in Fort Bragg. This is a misdemeanor under State Business and Professions Code Section 5464 because Section 5405.3 limits “Temporary Political Signs” within the view of public roads to 32 square feet (4’x8’).

Caltrans enforces this rule which it describes on its web page “Political Signs”

http://www.dot.ca.gov/trafficops/oda/political.html.

The Caltrans response to the Yes on AF violation will be available from the Caltrans District One office in Eureka.

The Yes on AF campaign was evidently proud of its illegal action and features a photo of the sign at the top of its Facebook page, “Yes on Measure AF: The Mendocino Heritage Act.”

2. Fails to file campaign finance disclosure report

The other misdemeanor violation was the Yes on AF failure to file the campaign financial disclosure that was due not later than 5 p.m. September 29. As of 11 a.m. October 3, the statement still had not appeared at the County Clerk’s office.

Campaign financial statements disclose the total amount raised and spent by a candidate or measure proponent, together with a list of individuals who donate $100 or more. Failure to make a timely and accurate report is a misdemeanor under State Government Code Section 91000.

The No on Measure AF Committee met the September 29 deadline and reported total contributions of $7,620 and expenditures of $417 through September 24, with a list of 21 individual donors.

“The Yes campaign is hiding the blizzard of one hundred dollar bills that they are using to try to buy this election,” said Mike Sweeney, coordinator of the No on Measure AF Committee. “Contributions of more than $100 in cash are illegal,” he added.

An article in the magazine Cannabis Now, describing the Yes on AF fund-raising event in Laytonville on August 18, 2016, said: “Casey O’Neill of Happy Day Farms and president of the CGA was the first with his stack of bills. Shortly thereafter came Adam Steinberg with a check from Flow Kana — a real check instead of cash! This is a new age indeed in our industry! We raised $18,000 that night, but we still have a long ways to go to match what our fellows on the Mendocino Coast have put up by raising $40,000.” https://cannabisnow.com/grow/the-fight-to-preserve-mendos-marijuana-heritage The article goes on to conclude, “It is projected that it will cost $150,000 to win on Nov. 8.”

The State’s Fair Political Practices Commission says that “A committee may not accept a cash contribution of $100 or more. Such a contribution may be returned to the contributor prior to the end of the reporting period, provided the cash was not previously deposited or spent. A cash contribution that is inadvertently deposited into the committee bank account must be refunded within 72 hours of receipt.”

http://www.fppc.ca.gov/content/dam/fppc/NS-Documents/TAD/Campaign%20Manuals/Manual_4/Manual_4_Ch_6_Contribution_Restrictions.pdf

(The prohibition on cash contributions of $100 or more is made in State Government Code Section 84300).

“It’s not surprising that the Yes on AF group is running an illegal campaign,” said Sweeney. “The whole point of Measure AF is to eliminate any effective laws about the marijuana industry and allow a free-for-all unlike anything we have experienced to date.”

As of October 3, 15 civic organizations have formally recommended a “No” vote on Measure AF, the attempt by marijuana growers to rewrite Mendocino County’s rules for commercial marijuana.

Opposition to Measure AF has been voted by:

• Board of Supervisors
• Brooktrails Township Board of Directors
• Willits Environmental Center
• Mendocino County Farm Bureau
• Peregrine Audubon Society
• California Native Plant Society, Sanhedrin Chapter
• Mendocino County Fire Chiefs' Association
• Deputy Sheriffs Association
• Mendocino County Blacktail Association
• Mendocino County Board of Education
• Rogina Heights Concerned Neighbors
• Ukiah Daily Journal
• Mendocino County Fire Safe Council
• Mendocino County Inland Land Trust
• Ukiah Valley Trails Group

The 60-page "Mendocino Heritage Act" was written by marijuana growers without input from the public or elected officials. It would trample on the rights of the rest of the community, according to the No on Measure AF Committee.

The No on Measure AF committee points to eight major problems with the measure:

Measure AF would allow growing in every zone, including residential districts, with grows of up to 1 acre of plant canopy.

Measure AF would allow growing within 30 feet of a neighbor's property and within 100 feet of a neighbor's house, except in mobile home parks where there would be no setback requirements at all.

Measure AF shifts away from the sheriff enforcing marijuana permit rules to a civil procedure that would be so weak and slow as to be non-existent. Tiny penalties for violations provide no incentive for compliance. “In practice, there would no longer be any regulations at all for marijuana growing,” said Sweeney.

Measure AF would give marijuana recognition under the County's "Right to Farm" ordinance, meaning growers would be shielded from neighbors’ complaints about odor, generator noise, light and chemical drift.

Measure AF would eliminate the 1000 foot separation under existing County Code between marijuana operations and youth-oriented facilities, churches and residential treatment centers, and Measure AF would reduce the marijuana separation from parks and schools to only 600 feet.

Measure AF would allow an unlimited number of marijuana dispensaries in any commercial zoning without public process.

Measure AF would allow the use of explosive butane in manufacture of hash oil as a "principal permitted use" in any industrial zoning, even though this dangerous practice has caused many fires.

Measure AF eliminates the County requirement for solid fencing around marijuana gardens to keep wildlife away from poisons.

The Committee believes Measure AF, if passed, would spark another "Green Rush" of outsiders coming to Mendocino County to grow marijuana without any consideration of the environment. Once marijuana growers realized that the permit process under Measure AF was unworkable, and the sheriff was prohibited from enforcing rules, there would be wholesale violation of rules that would worsen the severe environmental problems such as water diversion, erosion and stream pollution.

The Board of Supervisors is working on an ordinance to establish reasonable permits for commercial marijuana with strong protections for the environment. Preliminary approval was given to a draft ordinance August 18, which is undergoing environmental review. "That's the right way to accommodate the marijuana industry," said Sweeney. "Measure AF is the wrong way."

The Committee has posted "Questions and Answers About Measure AF" on its website, VoteNoMeasureAF.org, to provide more detail to interested voters.

Mike Sweeney, coordinator, 621-0511

NO on Measure AF Committee

Ukiah

ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2ND at about 5:34 pm, UPD officers and fire personnel were dispatched to the pocket park in the 300 block of East Perkins Street, on a report of a vegetation fire. UPD dispatch advised responding officers that a witness was following a suspect who had started a fire. UPD dispatch kept the witness on the phone and coordinated responding officers, who were able to locate the suspect in the 100 block of Pomeroy in Ukiah. The suspect was identified as John Montgomery, age 54, with a Montana Identification card. During the investigation officers learned that a witness had been across the street near Walgreen’s when he observed Montgomery near the fire. The citizen responded to the fire and began to stomp it out. Montgomery became belligerent and upset with the witness for putting out the fire which had burned a square of approximately five by five feet of dry grass. Montgomery attempted to start a second fire and then fled the area on foot. Another citizen followed Montgomery and reported his whereabouts to UPD dispatch. Montgomery was placed under arrest for arson and booked into county jail. The Ukiah Police Department would like to thank the two citizens for their involvement and for providing statements that led to the apprehension of the suspect.

For more helpful information you can visit the UPD’s website at www.ukiahpolice.com, and click on the Crime Prevention Flyers tab. As always, our mission at UPD is simple: to make Ukiah as safe as possible. If you would like to know more about crime in your neighborhood, you can sign up for telephone, cell phone and email notifications by clicking the Nixle button on our website: www.ukiahpolice.com.

(Ukiah Police Dept press release)

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THE CASE OF THE CADILLAC CROOK

On September 21, 2016 at approximately 08:24am, deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to a reported domestic violence incident occurring at 69501 N. Highway 101 in Leggett (The Peg House). When responding to the location, MCSO dispatch was advised by the reporting party that the subjects involved in the domestic incident had left the area driving a silver Cadillac southbound on Highway 101. Deputies observed the silver Cadillac driving southbound in the area of Mile Marker 62 on N. Highway 101 near Willits. MCSO deputies conducted a stop on the vehicle in the area of Mile Marker 61 on N. Highway 101 and contacted the occupants of the vehicle. During their investigation, deputies identified the male driver of the vehicle as James Edward Lamar, 38, of Sacramento. Deputies determined there was no criminal violations of domestic violence laws between the two occupants in the vehicle. MCSO dispatch informed the deputies that Lamar had a felony warrant for his arrest, which was issued by the Placerville Superior Court in El Dorado County. Lamar was advised and placed under arrest for the felony warrant resulting from violating the terms of his Post Release Community Supervision. Lamar was subsequently booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was to be held on a no-bail status due to his felony warrant.

NOW THAT a new cadre of greedy, image-conscious dope yuppies have taken to laundering their money through Garberville’s downtown, they’ve declared war on anyone who doesn’t have the look they’re looking for. They’ve made it clear that they don’t want no commie food club or hippie free box in their town, and they sure as hell don’t want anyone to give food, warm clothes, sleeping bags or tents to people who need them. They want to get as far away from the “hippie” look as possible, and Paul just doesn’t fit into their sharp new upscale image of Downtown Garberville. (SoHum authorities are trying to close down Paul Encimer's long-time bookstore.)

— John Hardin, columnist, LostCoastOutpost.com

CATCH OF THE DAY, October 3, 2016

JANET AZBILL, Covelo. Failure to appear.

CYNTHIA CABE, Ukiah. DUI.

RICKY LEWIS III, Ukiah. Under influence.

CHARLES THURMAN, Ukiah. Burglary, controlled substance.

BRING BACK GLASS-STEAGALL

Editor,

Protest our bank deposits.

The primary cause of the 1930s Great Depression was the speculation by commercial banks in the stock market. Because of these abuses by banks, legislation was enacted in 1933 known as the Glass-Steagall Act to erect a barrier between investment and commercial banking.

That Act was wrongly repealed in 1999 when President Bill Clinton signed the legislation to deregulate the banking industry allowing the banks to once again police themselves. As a result, by the end of 2015 the four largest investment banks in New York created derivatives of $186 trillion.

A derivative is an agreement between two parties to pay each other money depending on the performance of some other underlying asset, such as a bond. Large scale trading in derivatives is risky for these banks due to defaults.

Massive derivative losses by these banks will allow them to use deposits to offset losses. This is known as “bail-in” and the depositors can be wiped out. The Glass-Steagall Act must now be reenacted to prevent Wall Street creation of a new class of victims.

Yours truly,

Robert Dahlquist

Orange

SMALL DOG WITH RED BALL, an art photo by the Anderson Valley Advertiser

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

This morning I was flipping channels while drinking my coffee and both CNN and Fox News were running as their headline the story about Kim Kardashian West being robbed in Paris of nearly $10 million worth of jewelry. Kanye West had to interrupt his concert in New York because of this family emergency. Yes, this was headline news from two News Networks who’s charge should be to objectively, impartially and critically inform the Polity. Instead, they’re tantamount to Tabloid Trash. The System, as it’s currently constructed & operating, is by design and therefore cannot be reformed, but instead must be replaced. Fat chance of that happening without a tremendous gnashing of teeth from toothless mouths.

WAS THERE ANY DOUBT GIANTS WOULD BEAT DODGERS SUNDAY?

(Courtesy, MendocinoSportsPlus)

THE CACTUS EATERS

“My prediction came true a few minutes later. Just off the trail we saw the first fresh, lush thing we had seen in many miles, a prickly pear cactus with fat lobes growing from a thin stalk. Pink flowers caught the sun. The skin was shiny as a Granny Smith apple.

“Did you know,” Allison said, in a measured tone, “that you can get water out of a prickly pear cactus?” I wanted to believe. But when you are as desperate as I was, it’s important to play devil’s advocate. I looked Allison in the eye and said, “Well, yes. I’ve heard you can get water from a cactus. But aren’t prickly pears…poisonous?” “Prickly pears aren’t poisonous,” she said.

That was it. I was convinced.

I reached in my shorts and found the Swiss Army knife. I took the blade out and used my bandanna to wipe it clean. I knelt down in “front of the prickly pear, my heart beating with excitement. I was about to be a survivalist. Even better, I was about to have a great story to tell my grandchildren, the one about the time when old grandpa was sucking his tongue in a desert, came across a cactus, and got a hell of a good drink out of it. Giddy with thirst, mad with expectation, I hacked off the fattest, juiciest lobe. Good-bye, torment. Farewell, misery. Today I would prove my self-sufficiency to the world. Today I would get the last laugh on nature. It felt so good to be king of the desert, to know for sure that I was doing the right thing, and that all the people who ever doubted me were full of crap. I laughed in triumph as I popped the cactus morsel into my mouth.

If I close my eyes and take deep breaths, the memories return to me—memories separate from each other, yet connected, like flash cards. The first thing I remember was Allison. She was talking to me. No. She was shouting. The second thing I remember was the cactus. Its flavor reminded me of Green “ground, and howled. Allison burst into tears. “I guess she isn’t all that dehydrated after all,” I thought to myself between throbs of pain as the water poured freely from her eyes.

“I’m so sorry!” she said. “I tried to stop you. Didn’t you hear me? You’re supposed to remove the spines first, Dan! You’re supposed to remove the fucking spines!”

At that moment, I felt as if I were watching myself from a crane hanging several dozen feet in the air, and I was a director of a documentary, looking down on the ground and watching a stranger writhe, making sand angels on the desert dirt. I remember Allison’s screams, too, and hearing myself scream, our mouths yawping together, until I could no longer separate the screams. It seemed to me that our screams were echoing through the canyon, until it sounded like a chorus of people screaming, a tabernacle choir covered in boiling oil. I did not know, at the time, that the prickly pear comes from the genus Opuntia, which distinguishes itself from its spiny brethren by having not one but two kinds of prickers, “minute bundles of hairlike spines at the base of larger spines“ these “beverage plants” to get one quart of liquid. Aside from this, the plant has a long history of causing grievous bodily harm to human beings. Take, for example, Aztec priests. As part of a bloodletting ritual, they used the prickly pear’s spines to puncture their tongues—and their penises! Ignorant of this secret history, I bit the plant, and it bit me back. Allison was supposed to be the calm one, but you should have seen her then, tearing into her blue backpack, emptying and throwing things everywhere, trying to find items that might help her injured boyfriend. My lips bled. Pink saliva dripped from my mouth. I could barely speak. “I may require medical attention,” I tried to say, but the words came out sounding more like “Moogah boogah boof.”

In a blur of motion, Allison, who was still crying, delved into her fanny pack and dug out her plastic compact, a one-inch-by-one-inch beauty mirror with a small powder puff still attached, and then she stumbled toward me like a zombie beautician, reaching for me, eyes glazed. I had no idea what she was planning, and it made me cringe. I became even “were shaking. She held my tongue in her hand. She picked at it, poked at it, scraping away at the thorns while I cried out. In spite of her shaking, she worked with precision, until she’d yanked out ten spines, then thirty, but there were many more. Allison had a look of fierce determination. Through sheer will, she stopped crying and became steady and calm. She guided her hand, using the beauty mirror to get a better view of my mouth. In a half hour she must have plucked fifty spines. My mouth felt raw. Talking and swallowing were painful.

“You’re gonna be okay,” she kept saying. “But we must press on.” We had to find the spring. “The longer we stay here, the more we sweat, and the thirstier we get. You can’t give up now, Dan. You’ve got to hold yourself together.” I stood up. We walked, with Allison cooing encouragements all the way. My whole mouth was on fire. We left behind the nibbled cactus blob and walked up a hill through a forest of spindly trees. “You’ve got to keep going,” Allison said.

Her voice trailed off. She stopped, and she gasped. For there, not five minutes away from where I’d been attacked by the cactus, Golden Oak Spring poured freely down the side of a canyon. I should have been grateful, but to my ears at that moment, the sound of the water sounded like the spirits of the desert, the gods of the twigs, the gods of the cacti, the gods of the jackrabbits, the gods of the spadefoot toads.

And they were laughing.”

(Excerpt From: White, Dan. “The Cactus Eaters.” HarperCollins. iBooks.)

SIZING UP THE ENDGAME

by James Kunstler

All Hillary had to do last week was show up and stand at a podium for 90 minutes without swooning while Donald Trump barked and grunted his way through the half-assed press conference we like to call a “debate.” It was all I could do to keep watching the nauseating spectacle. It made you want to reach out and whap your TV upside its head, or maybe just shoot the fucker, like Elvis used to do.

The torment of who or what to vote for has become unbearable. I’d considered casting mine for Johnson/Weld, until Gary Johnson demonstrated that the front end of his brain is missing. Aleppo? Wasn’t he one of the Marx Brothers? I sense that Jill Stein of the Green Party is more Social Justice Warrior than EcoWarrior, and the last thing I want is for the rest of America to become one big college campus rife with trigger warnings and micro-aggression persecutions. Vote for Trump? Not if you chained me to the back bumper of a Toyota Landcruiser and dragged me over six miles of broken light bulbs. Hillary? Make that nine miles, and throw down some carpet tacks.

But wait a minute…! Here’s something to consider: a proposition put out by David McAlvany on his podcast last week: To Understand Election 2016 You Have to See 2020. (The new podcast is posted on Wednesdays, so to listen after Oct 5 you’ll have to click back a week.) The idea is that the winner of the presidential election is sure to be the biggest loser because the global economy is in the process of tanking, Long Emergency style, and the global finance system is going down with it. Whoever presides over this fiasco from the White House is going to be a bigger bag-holder than old Herbert Hoover in 1929.

The salutary part of the story is that such an epochal crack-up will sweep the establishment out of power. In the present case, this means discrediting the crony-capitalist, revolving-door grifters of the Wall Street/Washington axis, plus the neo-con military empire-builders bent on starting World War Three for profit, plus the economic central planners of the Federal Reserve whose desperate meddlings have nearly destroyed the necessary operations and meaning of money. And the cherries on top to get thrown out with the rest of this giant shit sundae would be the campus cultural Maoists. In short, vote for Hillary and let history flush them all out of the system.

A vote for Trump would let the aforesaid villains and bunglers off the hook because supposedly Trump represents free market business interests, and if he got elected they would be blamed for the economic and financial cataclysm which has been in motion for going on for two decades — and has accelerated mightily under the genial Obama. Whatever else you might say about free markets, had they been allowed to operate naturally, a lot of dead wood might have been cleared out of the financial forest by allowing failing institutions and companies to crash and burn. Instead, they were artificially propped up and hosed down with bailouts and other accounting frauds at all costs. The cost turns out to be the coherent workings of markets.

There can be little question that Hillary represents so much that has gone wrong in American public life under the Baby Boomer regime. The fact that she will be the oldest president ever at inauguration itself says a lot about the limitless cupidity of the Boomer political gen. They just don’t know when to stop. It’s history’s job to stop them now, nature’s way, by seating them at the banquet of consequences for all their poisonous cookery and quackery.

Watching these lamebrain debates, you get the impression that the folks running things, including media stars like the debate moderators, lack the slightest clue about the gathering economic storm. They are too busy reading the false weather reports posted by the Fed and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Both Hillary and Trump seem to believe that we can winkle our way back to a 1962-style economy if we click our ruby slippers three times. That is not going to happen.

There are too many people on-board the planet and too few resources to keep them all going. It’s hard to say whether we might have managed the necessary contraction, say, starting back in the 1970s when the writing was on the wall and a truly honest president (one Jimmy Carter) spelled it out in plain English. We blew it, electing Ronald Reagan to enable the final feeding frenzy of the techno-industrial age.

Now it’s up to natural forces — and their galloping horsemen — to get the job done. So let us by all means throw our votes behind Hillary and let her rip so we can move on from there sooner rather than later and find new ways to remain civilized in the coming disposition of things.

(Support Kunstler’s writing by visiting his Patreon Page: https://www.patreon.com/JamesHowardKunstler?ty=h)

MISCREDITATION CORRECTION

(Oh no, not the Beacon!)

Gentlemen:

Just received paper edition of *AVA *of 28 Sept 16.

On page 9, Ángel Gonzáles' poem, "This Mountain" (translated by the distinguished Louis S. Bedrock) is credited to Johnny Cash.

I therefore request the following compensation:

Print the following lyric and credit it to Ángel Gonzáles:

I STILL MISS SOMEONE

At my door the leaves are falling

A cold wild wind has come

Sweethearts walk by together

And I still miss someone

I go out on a party

And look for a little fun

But I find a darkened corner

because I still miss someone

Oh, no I never got over those blues eyes

I see them everywhere

I miss those arms that held me

When all the love was there

I wonder if she's sorry

For leavin' what we'd begun

There's someone for me somewhere

And I still miss someone

— Ángel Gonzales

* * *

Otherwise I shall have to send the Vicent piece on James Joyce that I am in the process of translating to The Beacon.

Respectfully,

Louis Bedrock, Roselle, New Jersey

UPCOMING EVENTS AT THE UKIAH LIBRARY.

October Maker Space-Monarch Rescue Seed Bombs

On Thursday, October 20th from 5:00pm to 7:00pm the Mendocino County Library, Ukiah Branch is hosting a Maker Space-Monarch Rescue Seed Bombs.

Enjoy this hands-on event. Make Seed Bombs filled with Monarch Butterfly habitat restoration seeds. You will take these clay capsules home to your gardens and neighborhoods to create beautiful, beneficial habitat for butterflies.

This event is family friendly, free to the public and sponsored by the Ukiah Valley Friends of the Library.

* * *

Teen Read Week™ with the theme “Read for the fun of it!”

Ukiah Library will celebrate Teen Read Week (October 9-15, 2016) with special events and programs spotlighting all the great resources and activities available at the library and to encourage teens from around the area to read for their enjoyment. Thousands of libraries, schools and bookstores across the country will hold similar events centered on this year’s theme, “Read for the fun of it!”

Teens are invited to participate in a Teen Read-a-Thon! On Saturday, Oct. 8^th from 10-5 pm, teens (12-18) can “read off their library fines”! Read for 30 minutes & receive a $5 waiver; Read for 60 minutes & receive a $10 waiver. If no fines are owed, teens will receive a free book.

This year, Teen Read Week also is a chance for libraries to highlight the services they provide for and with the 22% of the nation’s youth who speak a language other than English.

Teen Read Week is a time to celebrate reading for fun while encouraging teens to take advantage of reading in all its forms —books, magazines, e-books, audiobooks and more! It is also a great opportunity to encourage teens to become regular library users.

In recent years, many families have had to adapt to make do with less as a result of the economy. Teen Read Week is a great opportunity for teens and their families to learn about all the free services and resources the library offers. The library also offers a safe and supervised space for adolescents to engage in creative, educational activities with caring adults and mentors.

Moreover, according to Melissa Carr, Teen Librarian, strong reading skills are more critical than ever because they translate into better performance at school and better preparedness for careers. This is why it is important to take advantage of Teen Read Week and show teens that reading is a fun and relaxing activity they can do for free.

Parents of teens are also encouraged to celebrate Teen Read Week at home. Ukiah Library offers these ideas:

Set aside time each day for the family to read

Give books or magazine subscriptions to your teen as a gift or reward

Share your favorite book with your teen

Go online with your teen to learn about new books or authors by visiting http://tinyurl.com/yalsabookawardslists, or use YALSA’s free Teen Book Finder app

Host a book discussion group

Build an in-home library (thrift stores and yard sales offer an inexpensive way to do that)

Listen to audiobooks on trips

Create a cozy reading corner somewhere in your home

Use meal time to talk about books that you’re reading

Parents and caregivers can be role models by making time to read, too

Incorporate reading into teen chores, such as reading a recipe when cooking, reading instructions for how-to projects, reading sales fliers to develop a shopping list, and more

Teen Read Week is a national adolescent literacy initiative created by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association. It is held annually in October, the same week as Columbus Day. For more information, visit www.ala.org/teenread.

www.mendolibrary.org

DID JERRY BROWN’S CAMPAIGN LAUNDER DIRTY MONEY FROM BIG OIL?

by Dan Bacher

The California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) announced that it has opened an investigation into the California Democratic Party in response to a report by a prominent consumer group claiming that the party acted as a “laundry machine” to funnel donations from oil, energy and utility companies to Brown’s 2014 election campaign.

In her letter to the Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog, Galena West, Chief of the FPPC’s Enforcement Division, said the division “will investigate the California Democratic Party for alleged violations of the Political Reform Act’s campaign reporting provisions resulting from information contained in your sworn complaint (Brown’s Dirty Hands Report.)”

She said the FPPC will not not be opening an investigation into “the other persons,” including Governor Brown, identified in the complaint at this time.

West said Consumer Watchdog will next receive notification upon final disposition of the case, but didn’t provide any time frame for the case’s disposition.

“However, please be advised that at this time we have not made any determination about the validity of the allegations you have made or about the culpability, if any of the persons you identify in your complaint,” she said.

After receiving the FPPC letter, Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, said, “We are pleased that the FPPC has launched an investigation into the troubling pattern of contributions to the California Democratic Party by oil, utility and energy companies uncovered in ‘Brown’s Dirty Hands.’”

“The Party and members of the Administration who worked for it have a lot of questions to answer. Political parties shouldn’t be used as laundry machines for money from unpopular companies or for campaign contributions in excess of candidate-permitted limits,” he stated.

Consumer Watchdog released Brown’s Dirty Hands on August 10, 2016, at a time when Brown faces increasing criticism from environmental, consumer and public interest groups regarding administration policies they say favor oil companies, energy companies and utilities over fish, water, people and the environment.

The report tabulated donations totaling $9.8 million dollars to Jerry Brown’s campaigns, causes, and initiatives, and to the California Democratic Party since he ran for Governor from 26 energy companies with business before the state, according to Court. The companies included the state’s three major investor-owned utilities, as well as Occidental, Chevron, and NRG.

“An exhaustive review of campaign records, publicly-released emails and other documents at PUCPapers.org, court filings, and media reports, showed that Brown personally intervened in regulatory decisions favoring the energy industry, and points to Brown and his operatives having used the Democratic Party as a political slush fund to receive contributions from unpopular energy companies in amounts greater than permitted to his candidate committee,” Court said.

The report alleges that energy companies donated $4.4 million to the Democratic Party, and the Democratic Party gave $4.7 million to Brown’s re-election between 2011 and 2014. Consumer Watchdog submitted its report to the FPPC as a sworn complaint.

“The timing of energy industry donations around important legislation and key pro-industry amendments, as well as key regulatory decisions in which Brown personally intervened, raises troubling questions about whether quid pro quos are routine for this administration,” said consumer advocate Liza Tucker, author of the report. “While Brown paints himself as a foe of fossil fuels, his Administration promoted reckless oil drilling, burning dirty natural gas to make electricity, and used old hands from industry and government, placed in key regulatory positions, to protect the fossil fuel-reliant energy industry.”

In response to my request for a comment on the FPPC probe, Deborah Hoffman, Governor Brown’s Deputy Press Secretary replied, “Thanks for reaching out. Questions are best directed to the party being investigated. As noted in the response letter, the FPPC ‘will not be opening an investigation regarding the other persons identified’ in the complaint. I don’t expect we’ll be commenting.’”

Brown spokesman Evan Westrup told the San Diego Union Tribune on August 10, in response to the report, “The governor’s leadership on climate is unmatched. These claims are downright cuckoo.” (www.sandiegouniontribune.com)

Michael Soller, a spokeperson for the Democratic Party, said in the Sacramento Bee on September 24, “ “We received the letter, we’re aware of it and we’ve been fully cooperating with the FPPC.” However, he declined to comment any further on the investigation.

State law limits the amount that individuals, businesses and committees can contribute to political candidates. In the 2014 election cycle, a single donor was limited to $54,400 for a candidate for governor, according to Tucker.

However, donors can give unlimited amounts of money to political parties. During the 2014 cycle, parties were allowed to give up to $34,000 from each donor to a candidate per year.

In one of many examples of the alleged use of the party as a “laundry machine” for political contributions to Brown cited in the report, Chevron donated $135,000 to the California Democratic Party on the same day lawmakers exempted a common method of well stimulation from legislation meant to regulate fracking, according to Tucker.

After the legislation, Senate Bill 4, passed with an amendment dropping a moratorium on fracking permits, Occidental gave $100,000 to one of Brown’s favorite causes, the Oakland Military Institute. Brown signed the gutted bill on September 20, in spite of strong opposition by a broad coalition of conservation, environmental justice, tribal and consumer organizations.

Chevron then donated a total of $350,000 to the Democratic Party on December 23, 2013. Seven days later, the Democratic Party donated $300,000 to Brown for Governor 2014. On the same day Chevron donated the maximum to Brown’s campaign, $54,400.

“Less than two months later, Brown came out publicly to oppose a proposed oil severance tax,” said Tucker. “The weakened fracking bill also helped Brown aide Nancy McFadden, who held up to $100,000 in Linn Energy that would acquire Berry Petroleum and its 3,000 California fracking wells.”

Following an ethics complaint filed by Consumer Watchdog against McFadden, the FPPC on March 24opened an investigation into her failure to report the dates and times of stock sales in PG&E, her former employer.

The FPPC said there was “insufficient evidence” to pursue an investigation into whether McFadden violated other conflict of interest laws. However, the agency said it would look into the “apparent failure of Ms. McFadden to disclose the status of her stock ownership in Pacific Gas and Electric.”

Tucker said she was pleased that the FPPC was continuing their investigation into McFadden. “It’s a very good sign that the investigation is still open,” she said.

In the report, Tucker said the timing of certain donations “coincided with legislative or regulatory action on behalf of these companies.” Among the examples detailed in the report are the following:

• “Southern California Edison donated $130,000 to the California Democratic Party, its largest contribution up until that time, on the same day PUC President Michael Peevey cut a secret deal with an SCE executive in Warsaw, Poland to make ratepayers cover 70 percent of the $4.7 billion cost to close the fatally flawed San Onofre nuclear plant. Brown backed the dirty deal, telling Edison’s CEO personally, according to an email from the CEO uncovered by the Public Records Act, that he was willing to tell the media on the day of the plant’s shuttering that the company was acting responsibly and focused on the right things. Three days prior to SCE’s announcement that it would close San Onofre permanently, the company donated $25,000 to the California Democratic Party.
• Emails from PG&E’s top lobbyist Brian Cherry to his boss claim that Brown personally intervened with a PUC Commissioner to persuade him to approve a natural gas-fired power plant called Oakley for the utility. In a January 1, 2013 email, Cherry described a New Year’s Eve dinner with Peevey where Peevey reminded him “how he and Governor Brown used every ounce of persuasion to get [Commissioner Mark] Ferron to change his mind and vote for Oakley…Jerry’s direct plea was decisive.” PG&E donated $20,000 to the California Democratic Party the day after the PUC voted for the project. An appeals court would later strike down the decision because PG&E had not proved its necessity.
• While PG&E’s lobbyist and then-PUC President Michael Peevey fed names to Brown’s executive secretary, former PG&E vice president Nancy McFadden, to appoint the critical swing-vote PUC commissioner who would cast pro-utility votes, PG&E donated $75,000 to the California Democratic Party. The same day that Brown appointed ex-banker Mark Ferron to the commission, PG&E donated another $41,500. The appointment lifted the value of PG&E’s stock and the PG&E stock held by McFadden and valued as high as $1 million.

For the FPPC letter announcing the investigation, go here: www.consumerwatchdog.org/…

To read Brown’s Dirty Hands, go here: www.consumerwatchdog.org/…

For a video on the report, go here: www.youtube.com/…

As this FPPC investigation proceeds, the big corporate money behind Governor Jerry Brown’s controversial environmental policies is facing increasing scrutiny from public trust advocates. November 4will be the second anniversary of the passage of Proposition 1, Governor Jerry Brown’s controversial water bond, a measure that fishing groups, California Indian Tribes, grassroots conservation groups and environmental justice advocates opposed because they considered it to be a water grab for corporate agribusiness and Big Money interests.

Proponents of Proposition 1 contributed a total of $21,820,691 and spent a total of $19,538,153 on the successful campaign. The contributors are a who’s who of Big Money interests in California, including corporate agribusiness groups, billionaires, timber barons, Big Oil. the tobacco industry and the California Chamber of Commerce. They provide a quick snapshot of the corporate interests behind the questionable environmental policies of Brown. For more information, go to: www.counterpunch.org/…)

Background: Brown’s real environmental legacy exposed

While Jerry Brown often receives fawning coverage from the mainstream media when he appears at climate conferences in California and across the globe, his policies on fish, wildlife, water and the environment are among the most destructive of any governor in recent California history.

The Governor’s “legacy project,” the Delta Tunnels/California Water Fix, poses a huge threat to the ecosystems of the Sacramento, San Joaquin, Klamath and Trinity river systems. The project is based on the untenable premise that taking more water out of a river before it reaches the estuary will somehow “restore” the San Francisco Bay Delta and its precious fish and wildlife species.

Unfortunately, the California WaterFix is not the only environmentally devastating policy promoted by Governor Jerry Brown. Brown is promoting the expansion of fracking and extreme oil extraction methods in California and is overseeing water policies that are driving winter run-Chinook salmon, Delta and longfin smelt and other species closer and closer to extinction.

As if those examples of Brown’s tainted environmental legacy weren’t bad enough, Brown has promoted carbon trading and REDD policies that pose an enormous threat to Indigenous Peoples around the globe; has done nothing to stop clearcutting of forests by Sierra-Pacific and other timber companies; presided over record water exports from the Delta in 2011; and oversaw massive fish kills of Sacramento splittail and other species in 2011.

Jerry Brown also oversaw the “completion” of so-called “marine protected areas” under the privately funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative, overseen by a Big Oil lobbyist and other corporate interests, in December 2012. These faux “Yosemites of the Sea” fail to protect the ocean from oil drilling, fracking, pollution, corporate aquaculture and all human impacts on the ocean other than sustainable fishing and gathering.

Brown spouts “green” rhetoric when he flies off to climate conferences and issues proclamations about John Muir Day and Earth Day, but his actions and policies regarding fish, water and the environment should be challenged by all of those who care about the future of California and the West Coast.

For more information about the real environmental record of Governor JerryBrown, go to: Jerry Brown celebrates World Water Day as he promotes salmon-killing Delta Tunnells…

HITLER

Hitler started out in 1932

Yeah, he started out in 1932

When he started out, takin' them homes from the Jews

Thats one thing Mr. Hitler did do wrong

Thats one thing Mr. Hitler did do wrong

When he started out drivin' them Jews from their homes

We're gonna tear Hitler down

We're gonna tear Hitler down

We're gonna tear Hitler down today

We're gonna bring him to the ground

We're gonna bring him to the ground

We're gonna bring him to the ground someday

Instead of God in Heaven (?)

He gonna rule the world, he said so (?)

Instead of God in Heaven (?)

He gonna rule the world (?)

But we American people say he will be shot down just like a squirrel

Mr. Hitler, we gonna tear your playhouse down

Mr. Hitler, we gonna tear your playhouse down

You been flying mighty high but you on your last go-round

We're gonna tear Hitler down

We're gonna tear Hitler down

We're gonna tear Hitler down today

We're gonna bring him to the ground

We're gonna bring him to the ground

We're gonna bring him to the ground someday

You ain't no iron, you ain't no solid rock

You ain't no iron, you ain't no solid rock

But the American people tell Mr. Hitler he’s got to stop

Mr. Hitler he think he's so keen

Mr. Hitler he think he's so keen

But the American people know he's the biggest ol' liar you ever seen

We're gonna tear Hitler down

We're gonna tear Hitler down

We're gonna tear Hitler down today

We're gonna bring him to the ground

We're gonna bring him to the ground

We're gonna bring him to the ground someday

Mr. Hitler, he nothin' but a agitator

Mr. Hitler, he nothin' but a agitator

We're gonna tear Hitler down

We're gonna tear Hitler down

We're gonna tear Hitler down today

We're gonna bring him to the ground

We're gonna bring him to the ground

We're gonna bring him to the ground someday

— Leadbelly (Huddie William Ledbetter)

FAMILY FUN TAKES FLIGHT ON OCT. 8 AT GRACE HUDSON

Bird masks and feather prints to be constructed

On Saturday, October 8, from 1 to 2:30 p.m., the Grace Hudson Museum will offer its next Family Fun at the Museum workshop. Cathy Monroe and Cassie Gibson will instruct participants in making feather prints, based on the artwork featured in the Museum's latest exhibit, "Instinct Extinct: The Great Pacific Flyway," a multimedia exhibition which explores and celebrates the biology, beauty, and bounty of the Pacific Flyway, the major north-south flight path for migratory birds in our region. The workshop will also explore the incredible nature of feathers and conduct a short experiment on how feathers interact with water as well as oil. In addition, there will be time for everyone to make a simple bird mask using paper and glue that can be worn on Halloween, or even before!

This workshop is recommended for children age eight and older with adults encouraged to join in the fun. Space is limited so reservations are recommended by calling the Museum at 467-2836. Materials are included. The event is free with Museum admission.

The Grace Hudson Museum is at 431 S. Main St. in Ukiah. The Museum is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 4:30 p.m. General admission is $4; $10 per family; $3 for students and seniors; free to all on the first Friday of the month; and always free to members. For more information please go to gracehudsonmuseum.org or call (707) 467-2836.

VOTER REGISTRATION ON SOUTH COAST FOR OCTOBER, 2016:

Editor,

Volunteers will be at the following places in OCTOBER to register voters:

Please list on your Calendar and in your papers and announce on your radio stations.

Voter Registration At 10/15 Pay 'N' Take And At Gualala Post Office On 10/24:

Volunteers will be available to register people to VOTE for the November 8th General Election at the following locations between now and Monday,

October 24, 2016, the very last day to register to vote before the

Tuesday, November 8th General Election:

Saturday, October 15 From 8:30am - 12 Noon At The Pay 'N' Take, Gualala Community Center

Monday, October 24 at the New Gualala Post Office From 12 Noon - 2PM

Monday, October 24 is the last day to register to vote for this election!

Your Voter Registration Form MUST be postmarked by this date!

Information: www.sos.ca.gov<http://www.sos.ca.gov> or 884-4703.

You must be a US Citizen and be 18 years old by Tuesday, November 8, 2016 to be eligible to VOTE.

If you have moved or changed your name, you must re-register to vote.

This Is An Open General Election Meaning All Four Candidates For President Will Be On Everyone's Ballot No Matter What Your Party You Chose.

It's easy to Register to Vote online:

www.sos.ca.gov<http://www.sos.ca.gov>;

www.votolatino.org<http://www.votolatino.org>;

www.iwillvote.com<http://www.iwillvote.com>; rockthevote.com

SELF-DEFENSE

Why is Postmodern America such an Unstable, Dangerous Place?

I am particularly interested in knowing why neither major American political party has an environmental platform, during this irrational spectacle of the 2016 presidential election. And what is up with energy corporations increasingly coming on with their racist shit domestically, to serve the insatiable global capitalist monster? Like the Oakland dudes are saying in self defense, "How about I kill your ass?" I believe that clarifies the question in regard to where direct action needs to go in the waning days of postmodernism. Indeed, ecodefense is now self defense! Craig Louis Stehr. Email: CraigStehr@inbox.com